February 2, 1939 – December 31, 2024
James Lewis Valen was born February 3, 1939, in the Coleman hospital at Estherville Iowa to Lewis and Isabelle (Tweedt) Valen. He was baptized March 5, 1939, at Palestine Lutheran Church Estherville Iowa. He passed away Tuesday December 31, 2024, at Ruthven Community Care Center, Ruthven Iowa.
Jim grew up on their family farm West of Dolliver, IA. He went to the Sunde Valley country school through sixth grade. Lewis and Isabelle built a new home in town and moved to Estherville in January of 1952. Jim loved the farm and was not happy about the move, so he lived with each of his two older married brothers to finish out his eighth-grade year at Emmet Consolidated School. Jim loved the farm and worked during summers for local farmers as well as his brothers. His parents had moved to town to make room for their oldest son Laverne and his family to take over the family farm. Jim attended high school in Estherville and graduated in 1956. His first job in town was working at Larry’s Standard Gas Station after school and during the summers. He attended Waldorf College, graduating in 1958.
During his working days at the gas station, he frequently attended Mr. Bill Henaman the local Ford dealer whom he must have impressed because he was asked if he would like to work for him as a salesman at the dealership. Jim has always loved cars (he grew up during the “guys and their cars “era) and he jumped at the chance. He successfully sold Ford’s for two years and even had the distinct honor of being the youngest Ford salesman in the state of Iowa. He decided he should finish his last two years of college and attended Morningside College in Sioux City, graduating in 1962. He majored in Business and Cattle Buying which went hand-in-hand with the busy stockyards of Sioux City.
Jim joined the Air Force in 1960 at Mason City in the reserves. He returned to Estherville a married man and was hired by John Morrell and Company as a junior cattle buyer.
Jim was married to Judy Kaltvedt on June 11, 1961. In 1964 he had a call from Morningside College asking him to work for them as an Admissions Counselor. He did that until 1967 when he again got a call; this time from his beloved Waldorf College enticing him to come work in their admissions department which he excitedly accepted. We spent two wonderful years in Forest City, Iowa making friends with several new young staff families as well as taking on the challenge of building a new home. Again, a telephone call came; Mr. Henaman offering to sell his Ford dealership to Jim. This was “Big Decision Time”!! His love of Ford cars overcame him and back to Estherville we moved with three small children; Jeff who was 5 years old, Jarrett 3 and Jennifer who was six months. He now was the auspicious youngest Ford Dealer in Iowa at the age of 30! I am not sure if he had lots of confidence or if his enthusiasm shrouded his youth and inexperience! He had great people working for him who helped him become successful in that role as well. For reasons that he was never quite sure of himself; he sold to an eager buyer from Des Moines. None the less we then moved to Spirit Lake and Jim went to work for Dowden Real Estate. We bought an acreage north of town where we raised our children on the farm where they learned responsibility, enjoyed 4-H, raising their own sheep and spending many hours horseback riding as a family. The old farm blood began pumping compulsively in Jim again and his love of it overcame; we began to not only farm our acreage, but we rented some added ground to farm as well. The children helped do much of the farm work as we went at it together as a family. Along with farming our own land, Jim became a Garst Seed District Manager, which became a demanding job so the kids and I found ourselves doing a giant’s share of the farming which our boys have always loved. There is something about the farm!! Jim retired in 2000 from Garst Seed after receiving several awards: Salesman of the Year, the Million Dollar Club 2 different times and Management Controller Award.
Jim had hobbies that he loved which filled his time until he had a stroke in 2014. He did wood working and had a collection of antique tractors; he did some restoration work, but he especially loved tractor pulling and was involved with that for several years.
We did lots of traveling in our RV and even took some trips on a motorcycle!! We rode over 4,000 miles on a trip to the Maritime Provinces of Canada. It was the trip of a lifetime!!
During our years in Estherville, Jim served on the church council of Estherville Lutheran Church in various positions. We have been members of First Lutheran church of West Okoboji since 1980; he has also been active there in various roles; one of the largest was when he acted as Building Chairman for the construction of our present church which was very demanding and took much of his time, but it was one of the most rewarding things he has done. Jim was also active in the Via DeCristo spiritual retreat and served as Rector in the early 90’s.
We have had a full life together, but our real love is Family! Jim is father to three children and grandfather to 13 which fill our lives with richness, love and joy!
Whenever I sit at a funeral and hear someone read a Eulogy, I think, how inadequate it is to try to summerize someone’s life on a small page of paper and it saddens me. I thought the least I can do for Jim as his wife is to personally write his and try to embody it with a touch of my love!
Jim is preceded in death by both of his parents, brothers: Laverne and Robert, sisters: Arlene Bygness and Shirley Juhl and our first grandchild Stephen Dalton.
Left to cherish his memory are his wife Judy Valen; son Jeff and Mieca Valen, grandchildren Nathan, Hannah, Grace (Wyatt Gatrost), Zachary, Zinash of Owatonna, MN; son Jarett and Traci Valen, grandchildren Parker and Kylla of Spirit Lake, IA; daughter Jennifer and Sean Dalton, grandchildren Clare, Mara (Justin Boone), Reisa, Josh, Caleb of Littleton, CO.
Service
Tuesday, January 7, 2025 at 10:30AM
First Lutheran Church
1525 Three Cross Rd
MILFORD, IOWA
henryolsonfuneral.com